Macedonian Young Lawyers Association, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, European Network on Statelessness, European Roma Rights Centre & Minority Rights Group International Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 32nd Session of the Universal Periodic Review MACEDONIA Introduction 1. The Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA), Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), European Network on Statelessness (ENS), and the Minority Rights Group International (MRG) make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), on the human rights challenges pertaining to statelessness, with a specific focus on discrimination and exclusion of members of the Roma community in Macedonia. 2. This submission focusses on various issues relating to the (risk of) statelessness, discrimination and human rights of those within the Roma community in Macedonia. In particular, it looks at the intergenerational impact of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia and the (risk) of statelessness still faced by some Roma families as a result, barriers to birth registration, the lack of a statelessness determination procedure and naturalisation. 3. The Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA)1 has been actively working on the problem of statelessness in the direction of its prevention and eradication for more than seven years. Within the Project Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness, which MYLA implement with the UNHCR Office in Macedonia, the organisation provides free legal aid to those in procedures for additional registration in the Republic of Macedonia, regulation of residence and admission to citizenship. MYLA is a member of the coordinating body – working group within the action for additional inscription of births and personal names. Over the last three years, in parallel with UNHCR’s #IBelong campaign to end statelessness, MYLA started a campaign for raising awareness among the population about the problem of statelessness. MYLA broadcast a video on the prevention of childhood statelessness on several national television channels.2 MYLA also published a brochure "Our Invisible Children"3 about stateless children and organised a photo exhibition. MYLA participated in "Regional Research on Statelessness" together with organizations from Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.4 MYLA also participated in the adoption of the new Law on Foreigners5 from 2018.6 1 For more information about MYLA, please see http://myla.org.mk/en/. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_URh2-EsK8 3 See http://myla.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Nasite-nevidlivi-deca.pdf 4 See http://myla.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Regionalno-istrazuvanje-za-bezdrzavjanstvo-V01-01-MK-Preview.pdf 5 Law on Foreigners (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 97/2018 from the 28.05.2018) 6 See http://myla.org.mk/wpcontent/uploads/2018/06/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8-%D0%BD%D0%B02 2